China’s US dollar-denominated high-yield bonds, dominated by property debt, have landed investors a 22 per cent loss so far this year, after a 33 per cent slump in each of the past two years, according to the ICE Bank of America Index.
Distress continued to spread through the property industry this year as China’s post-pandemic economic recovery slowed.
“We have seen the biggest wave of defaults already,” Suen said. “And obviously for survivors we expect further defaults” as sales momentum weakens and prices soften.
PineBridge’s Asian High Yield Total Return Bond Fund, co-managed by Suen, has returned 3.7 per cent so far this year, versus a peer-average return of 6.4 per cent, according to Bloomberg data. He has sold down all the bonds issued by Dalian Wanda Group subsidiaries and Country Garden this year in the fund’s portfolio.
Suen said he has cut the China high-yield allocation to around 20 per cent from 30 to 35 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Proceeds from maturing bonds were not reinvested in China. Suen has slashed investments in local government financing vehicles and some small financial institutions amid concerns about their credit health during the property downturn.
“The China property sector [is a] very distressed space. We are still quite pessimistic, and we don’t think the policy support is enough to revive these names,” Suen said, referring to the major developers that have found themselves in trouble. “We have been investing in other markets in Asia.”
He sees better opportunities in areas such as Asian banks and Macau gaming companies, as well as India’s renewable energy sector.
“We’ve had the ongoing efforts to deleverage the property sector,” Leonard Kwan, portfolio manager at T Rowe Price said in a media briefing on Tuesday. “It’s going to take a number of years to repair this sector. It’s not going to be an instant fix.”
Steven Oh, global head of credit and fixed income for PineBridge, added: “Sentiment is still quite negative with respect to China. I think there needs to be some comfort that the worst is behind us” for investor confidence to return.